Seniors keep it going

Three seniors - Andrew Bock, Sama Taku and Tony Gill - made sure the Pacific men's basketball season didn't end in Phoenix.

The Record

Three seniors - Andrew Bock, Sama Taku and Tony Gill - made sure the Pacific men's basketball season didn't end in Phoenix.

The Tigers overcame sloppy play and a 15-point second-half deficit to topple Grand Canyon 69-67 on Wednesday before 1,722 at Antelope Gym in a CollegeInsider.com Tournament first-round game. It was a wild game with big runs from both teams, but Pacific (16-15) made its game-deciding surge halfway through the second half and advanced to the second round. The opponent, site and date will be announced today.

The Tigers trailed 44-29 with 16:20 left in the game, but a 20-5 run over the next seven minutes made it close the rest of the way. The Antelopes (15-15), who finished in third place in the Western Athletic Conference in their first season of Division I under coach Dan Majerle, couldn't force overtime in the final seconds when guard Jerome Garrison missed a left-handed layup.

"Tonight was all about heart and Bock, Taku and Gill showed big heart in a great atmosphere," Pacific coach Ron Verlin said. "It was a fun game and our seniors refused to lose and battled their butts off."

Bock led Pacific with 18 points, 16 of them in the second half, and Taku (15 points, 4 assists, 2 steals) and Gill (15, 7 rebounds, 2 steals) did their parts to prolong their season. Gill made the winning shot with just over 1 minute remaining, following up a Bock miss.

"It came off the rim and I just went hard for it," Gill said. "Luckily, I was able to get my man low enough to grab it and go up and stick it back in."

It was a homecoming of sorts for Taku, who is from Tucson and had lots of family members and friends in the stands. Taku said urgency kicked in for the Tigers with their season slipping away.

"We didn't want this to be our last game," Taku said. "So we just talked about keeping it close and we kept chipping away and got the lead."

Verlin said the victory capped off a strange day. Junior forward Aaron Short tweaked the pin in his right foot during shootaround and played 25 painful minutes, and freshman guard T.J. Wallace tweaked his left knee in warmups and missed the game.